Indian dentists operate on 17-year-old Ashik Gavai at JJ Hospital in Mumbai on July 22, 2014. -- PHOTO: AFP

MUMBAI (AFP) - Surgeons in Mumbai have removed 232 teeth from the mouth of an Indian teenager in what they believe may be a world-record operation, the hospital said on Thursday.

Ashik Gavai, 17, sought medical help for a swelling on the right side of his lower jaw and the case was referred to the city's JJ Hospital, where they found he was suffering from a condition known as complex odontoma, head of dentistry Sunanda Dhivare-Palwankar told Agence France-Presse.

"We operated on Monday and it took us almost seven hours. We thought it may be a simple surgery but once we opened it there were multiple pearl-like teeth inside the jaw bone," she said.

After removing those they also found a larger "marble-like" structure which they struggled to shift and eventually had to "chisel out" and remove in fragments, she added.

The youngster's father, Mr Suresh Gavai, said that the family had been worried that Ashik's swelling was a cancerous growth.

"I was worried that it may turn out to be cancer so I brought him to Mumbai," Mr Gavai told the Mumbai Mirror newspaper.

Dhivare-Palwankar said the literature they had come across on the condition showed a maximum of 37 teeth being removed in such a procedure, whereas she and her team had counted more than 232 taken from Gavai's mouth.

"I think it could be a world record," she said.

Gavai's jawbone structure was maintained during the operation so it should heal without any deformities, the surgeon added.